The invention relates generally to systems and methods for data entry, and more particularly, to a system and method for rapidly selecting items, either numerical or character based, from sequential lists of numbers, characters, or text.
Various medical devices and instruments typically found in a care providing institution are used to provide medication, monitor patient condition, and diagnose disease. Common to all of these devices is a need to enter therapeutic or patient-related values for various parameters that are used either to program the identification of the device or provide identification or other needed information that are then used by a computer-controlled system, which may be ward-based or institution wide, to monitor and record diagnoses and treatment related to a particular patient.
One example of a medical device where the input of relatively high numbers of parameter values is required is an infusion pump, an apparatus for administering medication to a patient. A valuable and much needed development, the medication infusion pump can be used to administer drugs to a patient in small, carefully measured doses at frequent intervals or, with some devices, slowly and continuously. A therapeutic regimen with an infusion pump can be controlled electronically to administer precisely measured quantities of a drug at precisely planned intervals to give a gradual infusion of medication into the patient. The infusion pump makes possible a closer approximation to the natural maintenance of biochemical balances in the body because of its operation in a repetitive small dose mode.
As availability of drugs, therapeutic techniques, and technological capability have improved, the demand for sophistication in drug delivery has increased. In many instances, this added sophistication results in more complicated infusion pump operation. Achieving this sophistication in drug delivery capability while maintaining ease of use has been a major challenge for infusion pump manufacturers.
As the sophistication of the available infusion pumps has increased, so too have the number of parameters that may be used to control the infusion. Typically, an infusion pump comprises a pumping element that causes a precisely measured flow of fluid to be infused to the patient. This pump element is controlled by a processor that generally has a programmable memory associated with it for storing instructions to be used by the processor to control the infusion. The sophistication of currently available infusion pumps with programmable processors and extensive memory capabilities for controlling complicated drug delivery schemes adds significantly to the choices available to a physician for prescribing a drug regimen to be infused.
The range of possible infusion parameters includes, but is not limited to, infusion rate, infusion duration, dose volume, lockout period, repeat period, bolus size, bolus rate, patient weight, syringe size, container volume, security codes, drug units (e.g. milligrams), drug concentration, concentration units, or pharmacokinetic parameters. Each of these parameters may be entered by a user into the memory of the pump using a keyboard connected directly to the pump. Alternatively, the pump may be programmed by commands received over a network or other communication scheme from a central computer, handheld device, or other data transfer system or device.
Because of the large number of therapeutic modalities and the extensive number of possible required parameters, manufacturers have been challenged to provide a user interface that assists the user in entering desired parameters by accelerating the entry process as much as possible while at the same time, simplifying the process. To accomplish this, earlier infusion pumps have been provided with a “fast key” scrolling system comprising two “up” scroll keys and two “down” scroll keys which are operable to increase or decrease pumping parameters, such as the mass flow rate setting shown on a display, or the VTBI (volume to be infused) setting shown on the display. In some cases, such scroll keys have been labeled with upward and downward pointing arrows or chevrons, such that an infusion pump includes a single-chevron UP key, a double-chevron UP key, a single-chevron DOWN key, and a double-chevron DOWN key. Pressing either of the single-chevron keys causes the display to scroll numerically upwardly or downwardly, but pressing either of the double-chevron keys causes the display to scroll in larger increments.
For example, assuming that the display shows “6”, pressing the single-chevron UP key causes the display to scroll up by one unit at a time to show “7”, “8”, “9”, “10”, “11”, and so on. Pressing the double-chevron UP key when the display shows “6” causes the display to scroll up firstly to show “10” and then to scroll up further in increments of ten until it reaches, for example, a display of “200”, whereafter continued pressing of the double-chevron UP key causes the display to increase in increments of one hundred to show “300”, “400”, and so on. When the display shows “700”, pressing the single-chevron UP key causes the display to show “701”, “702”, “703”, and so on. One problem with such a system is that, for example, the single-chevron UP key would have to be pressed fifty times to change the display from “700” to “750.”
One attempt to save time when entering infusion parameters involved programming the infusion pump with an automatic repeat function, whereby pressing and holding any one of the scroll keys depressed causes the display to repeatedly increase or decrease until the scroll key is released. The repeat rate can also be changed depending on the amount of time the scroll key is pressed. For example, depressing the scroll key for several seconds may increase the repeat rate according to a function, which may be linear, or some other function, such as logarithmic. However, such prior systems may be disadvantageous in that the user may inadvertently scroll past the desired value by a large amount before releasing the scroll key. In other instances, the user may undershoot the desired value by releasing the scroll key too early. In either case, any potential savings in time that might have accrued from use of such a system may be lost.
Hence, those skilled in the art have recognized a need for a system and method of data input that is convenient, easy to use, and requires no additional scroll keys or other input controls, yet provides a user with an easily controlled ability to scroll through an extensive set of values, whether numerical, character or text based, that decreases data entry time and difficulty. This invention fulfills these and other needs.